


against the years

by mako_lies (wingeddserpent)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Aging, Immortality?, M/M, Non-Explicit Sex, Non-Linear Narrative, POV Second Person, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-08-09 13:21:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7803556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wingeddserpent/pseuds/mako_lies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years pass, and Naruto can only love Shino <i>more</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	against the years

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ChaoticDemon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaoticDemon/gifts).



> I'm not sure if this is what you wanted, exactly, but I hope you enjoy it regardless! I've always wanted to explore the concept of time from Naruto's perspective, so thank you so much for the opportunity!
> 
> Title from: "History" by William Carlos Williams.

Time writes age into Shino’s skin. Soft feathered lines across his forehead. Sharper ones at his mouth and eyes from smiling. Those you can proudly take partial credit for. You know, as you trace a wrinkle at the corner of Shino’s mouth, that you’ve contributed _a lot_ to Shino smiling over the years. It’s a great feeling, even as your still-perfect hands contrast against his worn skin. Time’s a funny thing, and it affects all people—and things—differently.

Shino shifts in his sleep, away from the touch. He’s always hated waking up more than anything. It’s enough to make _you_ smile.

+++

That first morning, still stinking with last night’s sweat, you surprise yourself by waking first. Normally you’re the last one up, as Sakura and Kakashi-sensei delight in reminding you. Sunlight too bright through the dumb, cheap curtains you have, and you have to stop breathing when you see Shino. More importantly, the absolute _wreck_ you made of Shino—those perfect purple bruises across the alarming pale of Shino’s skin. His neck, his shoulders, his pale pink nipples, his thighs, all covered with your marks. It isn’t like Shino shows enough skin for anyone to notice. You could (and did) do whatever you want.

You drag your nail over the red-purple bruise around Shino’s nipple, only for Shino to frown in sleep, expressive without his oversized, obnoxious coat to hide behind. Your touch is gentle, tracing over the vulnerable, marked skin of Shino’s throat.

Which is like, the number _one_ rule of what not to do to a sleeping shinobi. Do not: touch anywhere near their neck.

Shino’s eyes fly open, all brilliant and amber, and you—okay, so it’s totally still a new thing. To see the brilliant gleam of his eyes, and so maybe you’re a little breathless, a little distracted, it’s kinda hard to tell most of the time, but Shino’s _gorgeous_ —but the bugs, the bugs—

The bugs pin you to the bed. You could totally squish them, but Shino would probably be pissed, and their little legs tickle over your skin like they own you, and you shiver, and it’s so nasty, but Shino looms over you with this tiny upset twist to his mouth. And yeah, okay. Shino over you while you can’t move more or less—yeah. That’s nasty too, but mostly in a hot way. You tug at the bugs and you feel a soft bite at the inside of your wrist that will sting like hell later. “Morning,” you say, as your dick gives a more-than-interested twitch in your boxers.

Bugs. Seriously.

Shino surveys you cooly, and even the tiny bug legs skirting across your skin isn’t enough to deter you. Shino is hot. “Naruto?” he blinks against the light, then, his whole face and chest bloom with heat. His wide eyes land on his kikaichu and he averts his gaze like it’s something to be embarrassed about and then the bugs evacuate your skin. “You startled me. I’m sorry. I should have warned you. I don’t take well to being woken.”

It’s weird to miss the bugs, but maybe you do as you sit up. “It’s cool. Uh—breakfast?”

Shino blinks at you, still-flushed. He murmurs, “Of course. Let me…I should shower. I’m afraid I’m—“ he coughs uncomfortably, and you can’t help the leer as Shino heads for the shower. You are so totally doing this again.

+++

The thing is, you never really thought about Shino. Not at first. Guy had a way of flying under the radar. Like, Shino had always been tight with Kiba and you were always pretty tight with Kiba, so you _knew about_ Shino. But like the feelings thing? No way. Not even remotely a thing until the mission.

+++

Cold hits Shino harder than it hits most Leaf-nin. Every year, you know without fail when winter is coming because Shino curls deeper into the blankets and you at nights. Back then, though, you barely knew Shino. Didn’t understand that the bugs really hated the cold, and that meant that Shino really hated the cold.

The mountain chill rises as puffs of white from your mouth, so cold that you can feel it sharp in your lungs. Team 8 moves together smoothly—Akamaru included—despite the snow and ice and everything. And you—your chest aches breathing, from the chill, from the longing. (You could have had this. You could have _had_ this if you could have stopped Sasuke from leaving.) Still, it doesn’t matter as much as the fact you’re freezing your nuts off. Seriously, there aren’t enough pairs of underwear in the _world_.

Why these bandits would attack caravans in the middle of blizzard-land is a mystery. Doesn’t matter, anyway.

You just have to go in, stop the bandits, and get out before freezing to death. Simple. Which of course means that the bandits are actually mostly frozen, mostly starved orphans looking up with frost-rimmed eyes.”Shit,” Kiba growls beside you, and Akamaru whines, and you agree with both of them equally. This sucks.

“Please—“ one of the kids begins, softly, and well—your heart is sinking into your stomach, and you’ve got to come up with a plan, quick—

And it is _Shino_ who takes a gentle step forward, his coat outstretched. “You look cold,” he murmurs, still heard over the wind.

His smile is already tinged blue by time the kid takes the jacket.

You, Kiba, and Hinatat follow quickly till—doubling up under the heavy jackets—all the kids are warm, while Shino hands out Kiba’s supply of snacks.

Shino is the first to suggest taking them back to the Village, so you all head that way. Shino’s face is pale as the snow and you can’t stop staring. The sharp fragility of his normally hidden face. The gentle, soft curves of his mouth. Still, his lips are blue, but he doesn’t chatter with cold, and you don’t know how he does it. You expect there to be bugs, and there are probably bugs, but none you can see. The walk is slow, because starving children and snow. Shino curls his fingers into Akamaru’s fur. All the blankets were given out hours ago, and you can’t help think maybe you should have saved one for Shino as he gets slower, and slower beneath the press of snow.

He never complains though. You do. Loudly, and you're pretty sure Shino smiles at you, once.

Your heart seizes, not from cold.

+++

“You know,” You drawl one afternoon, stretched out in the overgrown summer grass beside Shino. “It was that orphan-bandit mission that did it. Like, you just _knew_ , you know? You were gonna freeze so you could help those kids, and you just smiled at them—“ You shoot your own stupid grin up at the clouds.

Shino lifts his glasses to look at you, despite the glaring sun. Despite the fact he sees you _all_ the time, and he doesn’t have to risk his vision in this horrible sun to see you. “And how many years has it taken you to admit it?”

“Oh come on! You never even _told_ me when you started—“

In a rare move, Shino cuts you off—“In Academy. You were different from most of our peers—weird, even—but instead of shrinking, you shone. Perhaps spitefully, but you shone. I… admired that, in you.”

He settles back beside you, closer this time. So that your thighs touch, and you can only turn your head to watch Shino, breath catching in your throat. That long? That long, and Shino had never—well. It isn’t surprising, really. You brush you fingers over the fragile skin at Shino’s wrist. Did Shino worry so much about being weird and different, to admire it in someone like you? The sun climbs higher.

+++

Shino’s skin is crazy. Mostly he keeps it hidden, so it took you a long time to be familiar with it. In fact, he guarded it carefully, shyly. Like he was afraid of showing off. Then again, if your body was made of bugs, you might be afraid to show it off too. But the thing is, that first time, sprawled on your bed, with him straddling your hips, you murmur against his cheek, “That coat is too hot for this. Just take it off, yeah?” You’d already shed your coat and shirt as fast as you could.

But Shino looks at you now. His ears go red above the jacket, and he hesitates long enough you feel yourself tense. He could take off any second and you couldn’t do anything about it. No. Instead he sheds his coat slowly to reveal the mesh shirt beneath, and he surprisingly takes that off without you asking. His skin is pale, pale, pale beneath, pale like Sai, and you expect bugs but you can’t see any. They have to be there, and you shiver knowing they must be there, and you reach out to tug him back to you. He comes, willing, and his skin is almost cool beneath your fingers. The pads of your fingers catch roughly on his skin, and you startle. You press up close to him and see—tiny, tiny circular scars all across his skin, like faint pockmarks. Shino tenses as you trace one. “Wow! What are these from? Do they hurt?” you can’t keep the interest out of your voice, even as Shino goes even brighter red.

“The kikaichu. When they emerge from my skin, it can be briefly unpleasant,” Shino murmurs, ducking his face down like he does when he’s going to hide his face behind his jacket. It’s adorable.

You lean forward to catch his mouth with yours again, warm, and you drag your fingers over the scars again. It's a relief that he can't hide, because you want to see. You want everything. You touch the slightly-raised texturing of his skin, and you smile against him. “You really are into the bug thing, aren’t you?”

He opens his mouth with an angry breath, but you stop him with another kiss. It doesn’t matter. You always thought the bugs were creepy, but—well. They’re part of him. Part of his skin. His body. His personality. All of it. Like the fox is part of you, probably. So you’ll deal with it. This is worth it.

So you kiss him and kiss him and kiss him until he relaxes against you. Until you can add your marks to his marked skin.

+++

You smile as Shino shifts awake, his wrinkles smoothing, and you pet through his hair. “Morning,” you say, softly, and his smile is equal to your tone. “Breakfast?”

He shakes his head. “No. I would—can we stay like this?” And even years later, perhaps especially years later, you can’t deny him. Never could. So you pull him closer, so he can curl into your smooth chest, so he can hear the way your heart matches his, and he does, breath evening out again. You think, for a moment, that he’s fallen asleep, but no—instead he murmurs into your skin, “I love you.”

And that’s all you need. It’s all you ever needed. Loving Shino is a daily thing. You couldn’t stop if you tried. You press your mouth to his temple. “Me too.”


End file.
